The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-12

will count myself as last; until all are
delivered, l will never leave the field Of
sin, sorrow and struggle"
In that reconstruction of the Chris
tian beliefs now going forward; a re-
construction which subsequent ages will
recognize as the chief fruit of Protest
antism a reconstruction which is the
prelude, las believe, to truer unity than
the Christian church has yet known
to that reconstruction Universalism
contributes the most vital item. For
Universalism is simply mans attempt
to find wider basis for his faith,
basis as wide as the universe-Univers-
alism. He found that faith could not
stand any longer on the narrow basis
he was losing it. But to lose faith was
to lose all that gave to life its value.
He must not lose it. So he sought the
wider basis, and became Universalist.
1t is possible to found and extend
church on this larger conception of the
Divine Providence, without appealing
to ignoble and debasing natures. The
time has come when such church can
do the highest work, 1t can lay hold
upon the understanding, the conscience
and the hearts of men, and change
their lives as well as their opinions. 1t
is not too broad or vague to yield def
mite teaching forms. 1t is true Gull
ture, both broad and deep. 1t can lay
hold upon the ignorant and degraded.
1t can restrain the vicious. Itcan con-
strain the attention and loyalty of the
intelligent, the prosperous, the irrelig-
ious, the goddess. 1t has a mission to
the abandoned at both extremes Of the
social order. And no blind Bartimeus,
begging by the old Judean wayside,
ever more needed the touch of Christ,
than do the intelligent and cultivated
victims of the glamour of modern civil
zation which has blinded them to their
God
The Universalist home missionary
will enter the town or city where he is
sent to work, with the feeling that here
are his brothers, whose destiny he is
forever to share. His heart will rejoice
in all their honesties and charities, his
face will burn with all their shames
He will not begin by preaching mega
tive, critical, antagonistic doctrines,
thus attracting to himself, and building
society out of all the soreheads and
doctrinal malcontents of the commu-
nifty. He means to save them, too, but
not by catering to and confirming all
their prejudices. He will begin by
preaching the Glad Tidings as the power
of God unto salvation. He will begin
his work by attacking the crying evils
Of that place, whatever they are. If
ignorance, intemperance, social and
family decentralization, conspicuous op-
preston of the weak, unsanitary condi-
tions of life, general godlessness- what
ever the crying evil is, he will at once
attack it. He is the man who believes
that evil is vulnerable he is the one
who will not admit that there are any
remediless evils He will thus antag-
onize the friends of evil, instead of the
friends of good. His critics and detrac-
tors will be the upholders of bad causes,
instead of the upholders, however mis-
taken, of good causes. His work will
defend him, and take the sting from
all arrows. He will minister to neg
lected childhood, gathering the aban-
doned into his schools. He will strive
to reclaim, he will reclaim, the fallen
and outcast. He will be known as the
lover of good and the hater of evil. He
will represent the God he believes in by
STOPPING to the lowest with power to
lift up. His Universalism will thus
shine through all he says and does.
Does any one doubt the power and sue
cess of such consecrated work ? Only
those who have not the conservation.
Such Universalist churches will spread
all over the land; such missionary work,
armed of God, will be everywhere &C.
knowledged and joined by man.